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by Aeddy Scots
Summary: A summary won't be useful until the story's done. A fairly nice story about Hermione. So far it's just barely HGRW but give it a chance or a review.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot. Disclaimer applies for all following chapters.

Prologue

Hermione sighed, brushing back her hair with her hands. She looked down at Ron who sat across from her, watching with sorrowful eyes.

"This really isn't working out Hermione, is it," he stated, rather than asked.

"No, it isn't." She twisted a curl of her hair, feeling anxious.

"I mean, I love you and all, but like a friend, not like… not like a girlfriend," he said, almost remorsefully.

"Likewise. I think that the best thing would be for us to stop pretending to be in love and go back to just … I don't know."

Ron stood up and hugged her, a distant but friendly hug, and kissed her forehead lightly. "I'll call you when I get home, 'kay, Mione?" he said, referring to the flat that he and Harry rented. He pulled his hat over his fiery-red hair and stood to leave

"Mhm," Hermione sighed. After walking Ron out, she shut the door and leaned against it, wanting to cry. She felt heartbroken. 'How could it not have worked out?' she thought depressed. 'Ron and I were meant to be together from the start. I knew it. Everyone knew it.' She went to make herself a cup of tea, focusing her thoughts on filling her kettle and lighting the stove and being grateful for the complexities of muggle tea making giving her something to take her mind off of what happened.

There were only so many steps, however, that one could go through in setting a kettle to boil. She sat down at her kitchen table waiting for the slightest whistle of the kettle. 'I've failed,' she thought. What now was she to do? She had planned her post-Voldemort life around being with Ron and now that very important part of her plan was gone. How now was she to find a husband and start a family. 'Maybe I should just focus on my work for now. That's something that I can hardly fail at right?' She perked up at this sentiment, knowing that her particular shortcoming in her relationships did not extend to all aspects of her life and that it was still entirely possible for her to get everything back on track as soon as she got over Ron. At this, she returned her disparaging line of thinking. 'I wasn't supposed to be bad at having a relationship with Ron. We were excellent together, outstanding even. Work isn't as temperamental as men but bosses certainly are only huma-' A high screech from the stove behind her tortured her ears and she hurried back to the stove, turning off the flame.

She reached for the kettle's metal handle. "Oh curse it!" she muttered upon realizing she had burned herself. "Where's a mitt when you need one?" she asked rhetorically. Her sepia-toned eyes searched the counters for an oven mitt, perhaps dangling from a hook above, but she did not find one. "Urgh," she groaned, sitting again to wait for the kettle to cool enough to pour out her tea. She didn't feel like tearing up her already cluttered kitchen to find one or going to her room to find one. She just wanted to sulk and wallow in her own self-pity. And perhaps learn where everything had gone wrong. Rubbing her face in fatigue, her finger moved from her chin up past womanly cheeks and a high forehead before tangling themselves in honey-colored curls. "Ron…" she croaked.


	2. The Beginning of the End

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

Author's Note: From this point on will be the story of how Hermione and Ron got together and then came apart up to the scene that takes place in the prologue and Hermione is again. After this section is over, there will be another story continuing from Hermione being all alone and sad about her break-up to her getting with… let's just say her getting over Ron, really over Ron. So no, this isn't really a Ron/Hermione fic with a depressing end. It a Hermione/other people fic with a possible depressing ending. (What? I'm being honest) I'll have another note when we get back to the present.

Harry pushed his wiry frames higher up on his nose, concentrating. "It's the fastest way that I can think of. There's no other choice."

"Harry, there has to be another way. There's _always_ another way. We can't miss our last year at Hogwarts. If we do, we might miss learning exactly what it is that would help us defeat Voldemort."

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" exclaimed a shocked Ron.

"What Ron?" Hermione said incredulously. "At Hogwarts we have a plethora of resources to help us find what we're looking for. We have teachers and a library and Dumb-" she stopped remembering that was no longer a Dumbledore to guide them in the right direction.

Ron looked aghast. "If the teachers were just going to hand us the answers on how to defeat You-Know-Who, don't you think they would have a long time ago? That they would have at least given them to Dumbledore before that evil git of a snake, before it was too late? If there were anything in the library to help us, I'm sure you or a professor would have found it by now and if not, what's to say you'd find it next year?"

"Ron, I-"

"Do you expect that at the end of NEWTS, the answer will be there? We'll suddenly know what exactly we'd been doing wrong all along? Or maybe a little party telling us that You-Know-Who had never been around and was just really strong study incentive?" He looked around him to see his best mate looking sullen. His blue eyes piercing Hermione's brown ones, he continued, "A study incentive made specifically for Harry maybe?" Harry looked up at his name being mentioned. His voice rose angrily. "Maybe the death of his parents and Dumbledore and Siri-" The raven-haired boy winced slightly at the mention of those who had died because of… for him.

She cut him off "Ron, enough. You win. The answer is not at Hogwarts," Hermione relented, not knowing if the full on mention of Sirius would be taken well by Harry. Ron followed her eyes to Harry and he looked guilty, his face taking on a red tinge. Harry's jaw twitched slightly and the silence became uncomfortable.

After a very long pause, Hermoine countered. "That doesn't mean that there is nothing left for us at Hogwarts. There is still a great deal that we can learn and the professors are vital resources that can help us."

"We can't tell them about the horcruxes," he said noncommittally. "Dumbledore said only us."

"We don't have to," Hermione said. "We can hint around it. Just to get enough information about it." The flash in Ron's eyes prompted her to continue before he went on another rant. "We really don't have much to go on right now, and I'm sure if Dumbledore had known he would have given us more information, but he didn't and anything we can get is better than what we have right now. Better than us going out there unknowledgeable."

Ron smiled slightly. "If we wanted to go _unknowledgeable_, we would have gone without you," he said, making a small dig at Hermione's bookworm nature. She frowned indignantly, but playfully, and even Harry's moody, concentrated expression had the smallest of smiles on it.

"Right," Harry said. "The Hogwarts library has nothing on you." A smirk played on his lips as an indignant Hermione turned to him.

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "And you're portable too!" At that, the golden trio burst into laughter, Hermione and Ron falling to floor after laughter had them too weak to stand.

A quiet calm fell over them. 'The calm before the storm,' Hermione thought. They had still not resolved the matter of travel. The doorknob made the slightest squeak and the trio turned to it. Another red head appeared. "Ron, mum said-" a high voice began.

"_Expulso_," Ron cried, banishing the voice and face from the room.

Hermione grabbed his wand hand and lowered crying "Ron! That was your sister!" They started to bicker and Harry was lost in it all.

Moments later, Hermione turned to him. "Harry, tell Ron that it is simply wrong to use magic on Ginny like that."

"Oh bullocks!" Ron said. "Of course he's going to agree. He's got a…" his face contorted as if he was about to have lunch again, but in reverse. "He's got a…" he couldn't bring himself to say it

As Hermione, amused, watched Ron try to think about the romantic link between Ron and Ginny, Harry interrupted. "No," he said darkly. "It's good. We still have something important to talk about." The good-natured air died instantly and Ron and Hermione nervously wondered how they had gone from Voldemort to portable Hermiones and then back.

Hermione started, "We should go back to Hogwarts. We've been building up to this for a long time, not just since the Triwizard but since Harry's birth even. There's no reason why we can't wait another year so that we can do it properly."

Harry jumped up suddenly clutching his hair in fury. "NO REASON?" Hr had finally cracked. "NO REASON, HERMIONE? HOW ABOUT EVERYTIME SOMEONE DIES AND CAN'T BE BROUGHT BACK? IS THAT A GOOD ENOUGH REASON? HOW ABOUT ALL THE POWER VOLDEMORT GAINS WHILE WE SIT AROUND STUDYING? HUH, HERMIONE? IS THAT A REASON?" Harry turned away, embarrassed at his outburst and Ron edged towards a withdrawn Hermione.

"Harry, it's-"

Harry's voice was languid and melancholy. "Another year means another year of deaths. What will seventh year bring with it this time?" His voice started to crack and his raised his hand to his face. "Who's going to die this year? McGonagall? Hagrid? One of …" His hand came up again and he wiped his face before lowering it and clutching a leg of his jeans. "One of you guys? All because I decided that I could wait one more year."

Ron and Hermione both took a step towards him. "Harry-" they began in unison. Blushing, Hermione let Ron speak. He walked over to his green-eyed mate. "It's not your fault that they died, Harry. It's, it's Voldemort's," he said, making the effort to show his friend that he would not fear the dark lord.

Hermione stood on the other side of Harry and gave him a sidelong hug. "Yeah. Harry, it's not your fault. They died to protect you, because they loved but not because of you. It's not your fault that you can't… you weren't ready to fight that.. That…"

"Bloody, slimy, foul, kneazle half-breed snake!" Ron exclaimed.

"Hey," Hermione said a hint of concern in her voice. "Crookshanks is part kneazle!"

"Who said he wasn't talking about Crookshanks?" Harry croaked, a smile on his tear-streaked face. Smiling, Ron and Hermione both hugged him tighter.

"I do have to go though."

"I'm with you," Ron pledged his loyalty.

After a small, but pregnant pause, Hermione replied, "Me too."

A/N: Feedback greatly appreciated.


	3. You Make Me Feel

You Make Me Feel

They had abandoned the idea of seventh year and not long after abandoned the Burrow, knowing that somehow someone would find out and that would be the end of their journey before it had even started. Of course, they hadn't left as soon as Harry wanted because of Hermione's meticulous and calculating nature. On more than one occasion, he had just wanted to strangle her and go kill Voldemort himself. But he thought about why she was so reluctant. Even as a Gryffindor, Hermione wasn't a great risk-taker and giving up Hogwarts meant giving up the learning she loved so much and her chance to be Head Girl (as she most certainly would have been), and she would probably never get the chance to get it back. Even in her procrastination, Harry reasoned, she was also not one to waste time. All of the delays would eventually work out in the end and he'd be all the more grateful for it when things got tough.

Pulling his blanket tighter around him, this was a moment in which he was thankful for Hermione's disinclination. 'It's bloody freezing outside,' he thought and the thin shabby walls of the lean-to they had constructed did not keep out the frigid and powerful wind. If Hermione hadn't been so meticulous, he probably would have died of hypothermia by now. He certainly couldn't maintain any semblance of warmness without blanket as heating spells and crackling fire would have attracted attention and they already had far more than enough. He sighed and the subzero temperatures numbed his tongue. He checked the simple, muggle watch that Hermione had gotten her father to send them.

"One more hour," he yawned, waiting for his shift to be over.

"Hey mate," said a voice behind him. Through the moonlight, Harry turned to see ginger-headed Ron rubbing his eyes free of sleep. "I can take over from here, if you want." At Harry's hesitation he added, "I'm not really tired anymore and I'm far too hungry to sleep. You'll need the rest more than me."

"It's not that. I just…" Harry trailed off. 'I just want to sleep,' he thought. "I just ought to be able to do my fair share. It's my fault you're even out here sleeping on…" They weren't really sleeping on much as the blankets they had packed had worn through in many parts.

"We're here because we want to be," Ron assured him. "Besides, we're not the ones who'll be fighting You-Know-Who himself," he added darkly.

Harry felt as if he might doze off before he could wake Hermione up for her next shift, so perhaps it wouldn't be too horrible to let Ron handle this. He didn't want to jeopardize their safety because of his pride. 'Yeah that's right. Safety first,' he thought. "We can deal with 'Mione when the sun comes up," he said to Ron.

Ron made a face knowing how Hermione would react to their blatant violation of her watch guard schedule and Harry smiled. Ron climbed over Hermione's dormant body and switched places with Harry who knelt thoughtfully, unsure whether he should, like Ron, cuddle up against Hermione's sleeping form or try to make a bed elsewhere.

"She's bloody warm," Ron said giving Harry the okay to climb over Hermione and draw him cold body close to her comfortable and warm one.

Upon hearing the even breathing of both Harry and Hermione, Ron finally let his thoughts refocus elsewhere. He looked down into his lap seeing the obvious result of Hermione's warmness and blushed a beet-red although no one was watching. He sighed, happy that the coldness of his surrounding was helping get rid of this problem, but annoyed because he thought there were much better ways of getting rid of such a problem. 'Stupid You-Kn- stupid Voldemort,' he thought disrespectfully. 'Can't get even relieve myself thanks to him.'

He sat in the cold for few minutes more thinking of things like Transfiguration homework and buying chocolate frogs, dispassionate and unerotic things. When he finally found himself able to move comfortably, he let out a deep breath knowing that if Harry or Hermione woke, they wouldn't find him in an embarrassing state. 'Hermione,' he thought, slightly confused. He hadn't really felt anything that was not simply friendly towards her, not even after the disastrous Yule Ball in fourth year. He felt unsure of his new feeling or at least his new actions. She had changed over the years, but not significantly. Her hair was still rather bushy, thicker and more voluminous than most other girls; and her body had changed alongside a lot of other girls so that wasn't a major factor. She was pretty, but not especially so. He couldn't think of why she could now do to him what she hadn't before.

'Maybe it's the lack of girls around here,' he thought. The bleak forest setting was not the best place to pick anyone up. But that was mostly because there was no one else around and if there had been, he probably didn't want them around.

It had been two months since they had left when it first happened, when he first found himself turned on by Hermione. He had tried to get away but she was on the verge of waking up and when he moved to get up, she had opened her eyes and sat up so he just rolled away from her facing the thin wall of the shelter and when she tried to speak to him, he mumbled, "Lemmelone. Imtyin tasleep" and made a vague and annoying sound. She muttered under her breath and got up moving over to Harry so she could begin her shift.

Now, it had been six months of these constant longings for Hermione, waiting vaguely through his shift so he could find himself nestled deep in unproductive blankets basking in the warmth and comfort Hermione's body offered. 'Maybe, it's just too bloody cold!' he thought. He shivered, wishing he hadn't offered to switch places with Harry. He decided to stop thinking about Hermione and his cravings for her, knowing he couldn't pursue anything until 'Bloody Voldemort' was gone.

Lacking anything more interesting to do, he began to count his breaths. He exhaled and when a small white puff of air appeared, he said "One." He took shallow breaths and deeps breaths, quiet breaths and loud breaths, normal breaths and creepy stalker-esque breaths, all sorts of breaths to keep him interested while he waited for the sun to finally arise. "Six-thousand seven hundred thirty-thr-four." he counted when he heard a slight "Crack" outside. He grabbed his wand and moved closer to the exit. Whoever was outside was careful not to stepped on another twig but he distinctly heard a slow pattern being made, a "thump, thump, thump… thump."

'Two people!' he realized and scurried quickly back to Hermione and Harry and woke them both. "Three minutes." Hermione being better rested responded much more congenially than a disoriented and unaware Harry. Tossing her research books and scribbled theories into a bottomless bag, Hermione began to stuff the blankets and was thankful that they had so little.

"Water," she whispered loudly as she ran out of their small shelter. A now-awake Harry grabbed it before rushing out of the hut with a blanket-laden Ron. "Sustus Minaturo," she whispered with a strong flick of her wand. The hut seemed to disappear and she hurriedly ran over to grab something off of the ground while Harry squeezed her arm quite tightly.

Then they were gone.


	4. Yes, Wait What?

Yes, Wait… What?

"I'm really sick of this Harry. When's it going to end?" Ron was highly frustrated. It was frustrating to be a teenage boy in love with one of your best friends, but it was more frustrating to be a teenage boy in love with your best friend while hunting Voldemort's soul.

"Ron," Hermione sighed. "It'll be over when it's over. But we have to do everything carefully."

Ron gave her a look, a look she couldn't quite interpret and stopped his complaining. Hermione felt an internal relief. More and more Ron had been complaining about the lack of progress they were making. Sure it was cold and uncomfortable and everyone was stressed, but… 'Hmm,' Hermione thought wondering how it could possibly be worse than this. But at least we're all alive still. And soon we won't have to worry about Voldemort anymore.' Yes that was the upside.

Hermione quickly glanced around their shoddy dwelling. It was as tidy as she could get it with two _disgusting_ teenage boys around and it wasn't crawling with little animals making it far more comfortable than the woods surrounding it. She watched Ron's freckly face break into a smile as he said "Checkmate." He moved his rook to the row that Harry's king occupied. There was nothing to protect the king from an awful beating. But nothing happened.

"You probably just meant check, mate," Harry laughed at his own pun as he moved his knight into the king's line blocking Ron's rook from checking him. Ron's slightly long face turned beet-red from the bottom of his rounded chin to the top of his slighty oversized ears. Harry laughed even harder upon seeing his best friend and adversary turn into a tomato. His strong jaw and clear skin enhanced the purity of his laughter in Hermione's mind. His clear green eyes twinkled with mirth and he rocked back and forth, his messy black hair swished about.

'This is how it should've been,' Hermione thought. 'We should've been at Hogwarts. Everyday should've been this.' She suddenly remembered why things couldn't always be like this and frowned. Watching Harry laugh to the point of tears while Ron yelled "Shut _up_. Shut up!" she jumped to her feet.

"I cannot believe that you two are playing around like this!" Suddenly she felt very, very irritated and her face became flushed with anger. Her hair seemed to take on an enraged life of its own and she looked demonic with her red face and frizzed hair. "We're supposed to be trying to stop Voldemort and you guys are sitting here playing Wizard's Chess like everything is just PEACHY!" She made a noise that sounded somewhat like a howl."

"Hermione, calm down," Ron said, his blue eyes fearful. "It's just a game an-"

She lit into him, "JUST A GAME RON! Look at where we are. Think about what we have to do. I haven't gotten anywhere in research and there are many more of these god-awful books to go through." Her frantic voice crescendo'd.

"Fine, we'll read some books too," Harry said in a quiet voice.

"You will? Now?" Hermione's voice sounded almost childlike and the momentary silence that followed quickly became awkward and tense. "YOU WILL? NOW?" she asked frustrated. "NOW YOU'LL READ THE BLOODY BOOKS? NOW? Well right-o then. I was wondering if you were going to wait until after you BLOODY VANQUISHED VOLDEMORT!"

Harry and Ron looked shocked to say the least. 'What in the hell…' Ron thought. "You can't do that. You just told me I couldn't!" an indignant Ron cried.

"OH BLOODY HELL!" Hermione's voice was disdainful. "You wanted to come here. You both wanted to be here and now you're just sitting around playing games. What did we even come here for then?" Harry looked at her pensively, waiting for her to ask the implied question: 'Why couldn't we have gone to Hogwarts?'

It never came. Because at that moment, they heard the woods around them move. 'Fuck,' Harry thought, but mostly because there was nothing else to think. Then there was a howl- a loud, vicious and not-too distant howl. And it had friends.

The trio dove into panic mode packing everything tightly. As Hermione shrunk the tent and put it in her bag. The ravaging beasts leaped through the brushes. Hermione was tempted to not be afraid because she was so comfortable with Lupin. But she had to be afraid.

"NOW!" Ron yelled and she turned her gaze from the almost-human monsters headed her way. Suddenly she tossed Ron her bag and pulled out her own wand. 'What is she doing?' a confused Ron thought. But they desperately needed to leave so he tried to grab her hand and thought of somewhere else.

'Fuck,' Harry thought for the second time. Sitting on the cold bank of a river running through a part of the forest far from where they were, he rubbed his eyes and checked his surroundings again. "Where's Hermione?" he asked the towering Ron.

Ron's eyes opened wide in realization that Hermione was not with them. Then his entire face scrunched in pain, realizing that indeed Hermione had been left behind with the werewolves. Then he banged his head on the nearest tree, believing he'd gone mad for thinking that Hermione had actually wanted to be left. 'But why would she want to be left with werewolves? They could infect her or … or kill her!' Lupin had almost made them forget that werewolves were so vicious. 'We have to go back.'

Ron quickly spun around to face a now standing and somewhat enlightened Harry. When they made eye contact it was almost as if they knew they were thinking the same thought. "We can't go back," Harry said shifting his gaze to the ground. "But we have to."

Ron was stunned that Harry wasn't immediately jumping up to go back and save Hermione. Then he realized that anything the werewolves were doing to Hermione, they probably had already done and were more than ready to do it to them as well. Looking past Harry, he saw Hermione's bag and remembered her throwing it to him and watching her pull away from his outstretched hand deliberately. Then he saw the look on her face- one of hurt and determination. 'She was supposed to grab Harry then. I thought she was,' but his mind's eyes told him better.

"She pulled out her wand," Ron said. His voice was heavy and confused. "She must've apparated somewhere else."

Immediately, a baffled Harry asked "Why?" Ron shrugged. "Do you really think she could've been that upset over Wizard's Chess?"

"Maybe, she threw them off our trail," Ron answered.

"Yes! Wait... What?" Harry asked. "I think apparating would throw them off our trail enough." Ron just barely nodded knowing that it was illogical for Hermione to have apparated without them unless she _wanted _to be somewhere else, to get away from them. "She… she wouldn't leave us, would she?"


End file.
